EDITORIAL: Outrageous tab for Christie legal defense

The cost of a whitewash in New Jersey is outrageous these days, and more outrageous still is that taxpayers are footing the bill for it.

The law firm defending Gov. Chris Christie’s administration in the George Washington Bridge scandal sent the state $784,500 in new invoices, upping the firm’s total billings to $7.3 million for work that included an internal investigation that absolved Christie of wrongdoing.

Along with other government legal costs related to the bridge fiasco, total expenditures are now approximately $9.4 million — a tab being picked up by taxpayers and those who pay tolls on bridges and tunnels operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. And the meter is still running at $350 an hour.

Given New Jersey’s fiscal troubles, and Christie’s rhetoric about the need for government to run lean, the expenditures are appalling. The Office of the New Jersey State Comptroller, whose duties include conducting audits of the executive branch of state government, should perform an independent audit of the legal expenses to see if they are warranted.

The governor hired the Gibson Dunn law firm to investigate claims that his top aides and associates closed two of New Jersey’s local-access lanes to the George Washington Bridge last year, causing massive traffic jams in Fort Lee from Sept. 9 to 13.

To the surprise of absolutely no one, the lawyers found no evidence suggesting the governor masterminded the lane closings. One of the reasons no one was shocked by the report, released by the law firm in March, is that Gibson Dunn’s lead investigator, Randy Mastro, could well be seen as having a conflict of interest. His firm represents both Christie and the Port Authority. Mastro denies any such conflict, saying earlier this year, “The representation of the Port Authority ... has been cleared by the Port Authority.” Still, the appearance of a conflict is there. In addition, the law firm donated $10,000 to the Republican Governors Association, an organization led by Christie, mere weeks before it released its report.

For all the millions spent on the report, many still believe that even if Christie didn’t play a role in the lane closures, the political culture he helped create led staffers to believe he would have approved of their actions. U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman, the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey, is conducting his own investigation into the access lane closures. Fishman also is looking into allegations that Christie administration officials may have pressured Dawn Zimmer, the mayor of Hoboken, to support a local redevelopment project in exchange for federal superstorm Sandy aid.

What did Christie know and when did he know it? Presumably, Fishman will, in the course of his investigation, find those answers.

Christie is perfectly entitled to mount a defense against whatever charges may one day be brought against his administration. But since the taxpayers are footing the bill, they are entitled to look at the books, via the Office of the Comptroller.